WE have to feel at home with the basic truth that if we want our life to be
complete, perfect, mature, it has to be a life in the Spirit. We are actually
wired for it, and besides, God through Christ gives us the Holy Spirit.
We are wired to a life in the Spirit because we are also a spiritual being
whose spirit comes from the Holy Spirit and belongs to him. Our spiritual soul,
the seat of our intellectual and willful operations—our knowing and
loving—would simply hang on air unless it is connected with a spiritual
principle and end.
We obviously have a variety of spiritual principles and ends to choose from. We
can choose our own selves, for example, or we can choose things of the world to
be the principle and end of our spiritual soul, of our knowing and loving.
The proper principle and end, however, is God who in the Son through the Holy
Spirit created us. It’s a truth that can be accessed through our reasoning
alone, and confirmed and buttressed by faith.
Our reason already tells us that since we cannot create our own selves, we must
have been created by a higher being. This is how we are led to discover the
reality of God. That initial discovery is deepened and enriched by our faith.
Our task and responsibility therefore is to keep our faith to conform ourselves
to this basic truth.
That’s why if our spiritual faculties, our intelligence and will, are made to
operate unhampered by any bias, they will always have a natural tendency to
look for God as their first principle, a principle without any previous
principle, and their ultimate end, beyond which there can be no other. We are
actually wired for God.
Christ himself said that he will send the Holy Spirit to us. “It is much better
for you that I go,” he said. “If I fail to go, the Paraclete will never come to
you, whereas if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn 16,7)
Then he added, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. When
he comes, however, being the Spirit of truth he will guide you to all truth…”
(Jn 16,12-13)
It is interesting to note that with these words, we can say we cannot really
know the truth, the fullness of it, unless we are in the Holy Spirit. If we
want a reality check, we have to go to the Holy Spirit, and not just depend on
our senses nor even our brains.
That should make us realize very deeply how important it is that we be in the
Holy Spirit, that our life is in fact a life in the Holy Spirit. In short, we
would be leading a bogus life, one not quite proper to us, if we are not in the
Spirit.
If we are not in the Spirit, our knowing and loving would have trajectories
that in the end would lead us nowhere, though they can have exciting episodes
in the meantime.
We have to adjust the way we think and see things in general to accommodate
this very crucial truth about ourselves. We are often so hampered and then
entangled by merely earthly and material considerations that we fail to see
things in their real and ultimate perspectives, with the inputs of pure reason
and faith considered.
We need to pray to the Holy Spirit, to develop an abiding and intimate
relationship with him. In this, let’s hope that we can pass from the infantile
stage to the more adult and mature one that would enable us to resolve the many
questions and doubts we can have about the Holy Spirit.
It’s usually our pride that makes us blind and deaf to the Holy Spirit, and to
depend solely or mainly on ourselves. We have to melt that pride away,
sometimes using strong solvents for that purpose.
But it’s important that our dealings with the Holy Spirit be constant. We have
to learn to be sensitive and docile to his promptings to the extent that our
thoughts, words and deeds would reflect the mind and ways of the Holy Spirit.
Toward the Holy Spirit, the proper attitude to have is to want to be filled
with him. Let’s be zealous in reaching that goal, without being distracted by
our other concerns no matter how urgent they may be.
Let’s promptly second the Holy Spirit’s inspirations, because delays will only
distance us from him.
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